kitsu

And I have returned, with 103 pictures, for your viewing pleasure. I have uploaded about 30 of them on my flickr page, and they are just lovely (if I may say so myself).

Seward (still) is an absolutely beautiful town. This time, I went on a tour/cruise. And it was free! Ah, the benefits of knowing a local. On said tour, I saw: sea otters, dalls porpoise(s?) (sadly, my pictures of them did not come out well, so the link goes to GIS), a couple seals (but the sightings of these were only brief, so I have no pictures of them), a bunch of eagles, a ton of steller sea lions (with pics aplenty), a few mountain goats, and some random, unnoteworthy creatures. The dalls porpoise were amazing. We came across three pods (are they called pods?) of them, two of which decided to swim/jump along in front of the boat for a while. They look like tiny orca. Very neat. The steller sea lions were also very neat, though far less active. Mostly they just sat on their rocks making their strange sea lion sounds, occasionally swimming around or fighting with each other.

And, of course, I still can't get over the color of the water there. Plus, there were dozens of starfish all along the shoreline, and some pretty big orangey jellyfish floating about. I saw this one, crazy starfish (which I have oh-so-creatively dubbed the SuperStarfish) with seventeen arms! A picture of said mutant can be seen on my flickr page.

The drive along the Seward Highway was even more beautiful than last time, with the mountains all snowcapped.

As you can see, I've gotten the events rather out of order, in my excitement to relay things. But that matters not. After the tour, I went to the Sealife Center, which was kind of interesting. I got to touch some starfish and some squishy thing. And a little after the Sealife Center, I went gun-shooting! (as seen above) And that was quite the enjoyable time.

So then. Go, see, enjoy the pictures. I have many, many more should anyone wish to see them.

Meant to post about all this a couple days ago, but became unexpectedly ill.  So, I have sadly forgotten all I had to say.  But, to sum it up:

 Went rock climbing on Saturday, and it was good.  My legs are all bruised, as I have no one to coerce me into eating irony meats, but s'all good.  I managed the climbing better than I expected to (not to say that I was especially good at it), and enjoyed it for the most part.  We were at it for eight hours, though, so I was mostly just bored.  Four hours would've been lovely, but eight....  Bit excessive, I should say.

 Nextly.  It seems that I will be returning to Seward this weekend, so hopefully I will come back with more pictures.  I think it's supposed to be rainy/overcast, but we shall see how it all turns out.

Giant squid!

It is very exciting.

^_^

I have added a few more Seward photos to my flickr page. Check 'em out.

Sorry nothing new. I can only do so much at once!

Hello, everybody!

Spent a couple days in Seward this weekend. Yesterday was overcast and rainy, so the pictures I took then are rather gloomy, but still nice. The drive along the Seward Highway between Anchorage and Seward is quite famous for being one of the most beautiful drives in the country. And that it is. It was absolutely beautiful, especially along the Turnagain Arm, where you have views of mountains to your left (leaving Anchorage, that is) and Turnagain with more mountains to your right. There are actually signs all along the way that have a picture of a camera with the words "scenic view: some-odd feet," with small areas where you can park your car and take in the sights.

Seward is a small fishing town, with little to do aside from sightseeing. It's so small, in fact, that the only movie theater has just one screen. Something that I found rather cute and amusing (though I wouldn't think that if I lived there, I'm sure). As a tourist, the best thing to do in Seward is simply to go to the harbor/bay. The water is clear and an amazing blue/green, with a mountainous backdrop, and you can see the occasional samon jump out of the water. Sadly, you can't see the color of the water very well in most of my pictures, due to how overcast the day was.

Today's weather was markedly better for picture-taking/nature-viewing. I went to see Exit Glacier, which is just a short ride outside of Seward, in Kenai Fjords National Park. It certainly was a big hunk of ice. While there, I accomplished another one of my Alaska goals:

I touched a glacier. Wooh!

On the way back, in Anchorage, I saw a bull moose for the first time. The antlers were small, but they were there.

As usual, be sure to check out the pictures at my flickr page. Hope you enjoy them.